A local serving of sustainable thinking

June 05, 2009

A reel green thing at the deadCenter Film Festival

Now in its ninth year, the merry, amazing, ever-growing deadCenter Film Festival has a reel green thing going on this year with an entire block of four films devoted to sustainability, Sat., June 13, 1 p.m. at the Kerr Auditorium, Oklahoma City. Click here for details. Of course the whole festival is worth checking into for a few days of creative immersion, but if you can’t make if for the full film

enchilada, then at least save time for the sustainability slice.

Here's what's reeling in the deadCenter green world:

Chase the Can | DEQ | An aluminum can makes an unexpected journey in this wind-powered video from the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.

Soil in Good Heart | Deborah Koons Garcia | Soil In Good Heart is a taste of a documentary currently in production by Deborah Koons Garcia, director of The Future of Food (2004). The importance of understanding, preserving and rebuilding this essential resource is the foundation of sustainable agriculture. We are all part of the soil community and we ignore this at our peril.

Food for Thought | Stefanie Gowdy | Offers a glimpse at locally produced agriculture and farmers markets, and poses questions about why we import food from all over the world when we are perfectly capable of producing food in our own backyard. Join the filmmaker and many characters she meets along the way in this interesting, and insightful look into what we eat and where it comes from.

Homegrown | Robert McFalls | By dawn, the interchange of the 134 Freeway and Interstate 210 is already starting to thrum with traffic. But only a hundred feet away, the Dervaes family has been up for hours. Their surprisingly tiny green oasis is a working farm right in the middle of Pasadena. Once seen as a nutty idea, the family homestead now produces three tons of organic produce a year. Jules and his adult children, Justin, Anas and Jordanne speak candidly about what shaped their family and their need for independence. We learn about Jules' father, an oil executive with a green thumb, Jules' adventures as a young man homesteading in New Zealand, and the sorrows and hardships their family has faced over the years, including divorce, lawsuits and a stint foraging for recyclable cans. We watch them wrestle with their quest to live a simple lifestyle even as their website, 'Path To Freedom,' demands more attention from followers around the world. Originally set up to share farming tips, it now dangles tantalizing prospects of a financial windfall. But what would it mean to sell ad space on their website instead of getting their hands dirty? Would it change their way of life if they got used to easy money? And how will Jules' children be able to buy their own homesteads and carry on in the future? There are no easy answers. But along the way, the Dervaes have grown stronger and found a tight knit community based on family, friends, good food, hard work, and the commitment to tread lightly upon the earth.

Stick around for a little counter culture flash back and forward with Saint Misbehavin’: The Wavy Gravy Movie at 9 p.m. on Sat., complete with yoga, at NE. 3rd & E.K. Gaylord, Oklahoma City.

Saint Misbehavin’| Beginning with Woodstock ‘99, director Michelle Esrick has spent ten years documenting the life of Wavy Gravy. Saint Misbehavin’ journeys from the hills of California to the Himalayan Mountains to reveal the life of this one of a kind servant to humanity. The film blends Wavy’s own words with magical stories from an extraordinary array of fellow travelers both cultural and counter-cultural, revealing the man behind the clown’s grin and the fool’s clothing. In Saint Misbehavin’ Wavy is revealed more than the tie-dyed entertainer and ice-cream flavor namesake that often defines him in the popular imagination. Audiences will come to know the activist, the optimist, and the healer who reaches beyond political, economic, and cultural divisions in his commitment to social change and the alleviation of human suffering. Wavy’s life is his message, serving as deeply needed inspiration that we can change the world and have fun doing it. Satirist Paul Krasner describes Wavy as “The illegitimate son of Harpo Marx and Mother Theresa, conceived one starry night on a spiritual whoopie cushion,” to which Wavy has replied, “Some people tell me I’m a saint, I tell them I’m Saint Misbehavin’.” Featuring: Wavy Gravy, Jahanara Romney, Jordon Romney, Dr. Larry Brilliant, The Grateful Dead, Phil Lesh, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Odetta, Patch Adams, Steve Earle, Lisa Law, Buffy Sainte Marie, Denise Kaufman, Michael Franti, Tom Law, Steven Ben Israel, The Hog Farm and more!

Transition Town OKC will have a table at both events. Drop by for a chat and some catalytic transition talk.